Memory Cards: Erase, Don't Format

After you've safely uploaded your digital images to your computer or other device, what do you do with the memory card? Here are a few tips:

Don't use the computer's software to erase your memory card; always use the camera. That way your card will remain as compatible as possible with your digicam.

When you're on the go and haven't had time to back up all of your pictures, use the "erase all" function on your digital camera. This allows you to recover deleted pictures with recovery software in an emergency.

You only need to use the "format" function on your camera every few months. This reformats the card completely providing you with a "clean slate," but also prevents data recovery in an emergency.

One of my favorite data recovery programs is PhotoRescue. It's available both for Windows and Mac OS X. You can download a trial version, and if you like it, purchase for $29.

Update: 11-10-2005 11am PST: After the discussion below, I retested on a Canon Digital Rebel XT and learned that I recovered almost as many pictures after formatting as I did using "erase all." The conversation below sets the record straight. Please read it, since it is more valuable than the original piece I wrote. -Derrick Story

I will often use my 1D MkII's lock feature to tag images I know I want to look at after I load them in Photo Mechanic. After I copy the images to my harddrive the originals are still locked. Rather than go back through and unlock then erase those images, it's much easier to just format the disk in-camera.

I use SanDisk's RescuePro and have definitely used it to save images from formated disks before.

I can't speak to point and shoots, but for pro-sumer and pro DSLR's formatting is a much easier way to clear a card. And as the previous poster notes, the .DS_Store and other files are good to get rid of as well.

I would disagree - I have had much more success recovering images off a card I have formatted than one where I "erased all." (Believe me, I've had both experiences!)

When you format, that actual files and data are still there, and are easy to detect and recover. When you erase all using your camera, it will actually go through and remove file data information, making it much more difficult to recover any images.

It is possibly true that formatting your card in-camera instead of from your computer may save you a little bit of trouble, it is still better all around to format your card in-camera than to use the erase all function.

I don't really know about the technology behind this stuff, but are you sure about what you've written about the "Format" function?

Just judging by time alone, I would guess you're incorrect. Write time on CF is pretty darn slow (as compared to read) and my Camera (Cannon Dig Reb XT) formats a card in just a couple seconds or so.

I guess I would expect that Format would just rewrite memory map of where all the files are located. That's what it means to reformat any other type of fixed-storage. That type of operation should leave all the files intact for "Rescue" like software to dig them up.

Please post a link to where you learned this information (or a retraction if you find that you're incorrect).

Good conversation everyone, and I thank you all for chiming in. Here's the scoop:

I had an interview with Pierre Vandevenne of PhotoRescue. He said: "Overwritten data is of course lost forever, however, not yet
overwritten pictures can usually be recovered/reconstructed." I had tested this on an older digital camera and my conclusion was that formatting seemed to overwrite the files while erasing did not.

I just retested on a Canon Digital Rebel XT, as some of you had mentioned that you use. When I used PhotoRescue after "Erase All," I was able to recover 148 photos. I then formatted the card in camera and reran PhotoRescue and recovered 144 pictures.

So, those of you who stated that formatting in camera enables file recovery are right, at least with the Canon XT, and I would guess with most modern digicams. I should have retested on my most current cameras. My mistake.

The problem with erasing or erasing all I am told is that the camera actually does not delete everything. Over a period of time you can no longer get as many photos on the card and in theory you slow the access time down.

Dear Sir,
I was navigating the internet for the mentioned subject when I saw your article and something came up into my mind, that is every one now talks about recovering the data from the memory card if deleted by mistake but I found nothing about keeping our privacy if we delete something and we don't want any one by chance to spy us and break our privacy by recovering this data if he got our memory card or mobiles in away or another, so is there any safe way to remove the data from our memory cards without recovering it in future by any software?

does anyone know if I have any chance of saving photos from an sd card that I formatted on my casio ex z60?...I also accidentally took one photo after formatting, and then we mistakenly, when downloading recovery software, burned the installer demo on the sd card (!)...is there any hope?...I have tries a few software programs and they have not worked...thanks

Hi, i would try to recover the date with the recovery program from sandisk... i recovered a lot of data from my cards. My old d70 didnt like it if you remove the card if safing isnt finished so the file table was destroyed but with rescue pro from sandisk i recovered all my pictures...

hai
i deleted the photos in my digital camera thru my laptop. but i didnt copy them. Again i took some 67 pics in it and copied 50 pictures back to it. and deleted those 50 pictures again. then only i realized i dont have a copy of those first deleted photos. is there a way to recover them? because those pics i took in niagara falls with my mother. they came out well. some one would pls tell me a way to recover the photos

Anyone that is not comfortable attempting recovery himself, can find several companies on the internet offering recovery services. Unlike most companies, especially the ones focusing on commercial customers, Rememory offers memory card recovery on a no cure no pay basis: you only pay for recovered photos. Feel free to send us an email for more details.

Does anyone know how long an SD card will *hold* image data for? Say for example, photos were taken a year ago, and since then the card has been formatted several times (by the camera) and many more photos have been stored on it, would it be possible to recover (even partially) using forensic tools the original photos that were taken a year back?

Exif Untrasher is freeware for MAC users. Is there freeware for Windows' users? I've tried Photo Recover by Art Plus and also Free Undelete but both haven't helped in recovering my photos on my digital camera. I clicked 'Erase' 'Format' by mistake!! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

I use a TOMTOM sat.nav system and need to reload it onto my ipaQ, probgel is I cannot find anyway of removing the maps which are already on the SD128 that is part of the system. Without being able to cleanse the card I cannot load TOMTOM. Can anyone please help?

Hi, i have formatted my digicamera memory card many times and was just wondering if anyone can recommend any software which will actually recover pretty much everything, saw between 1000 and 2000 photos back, and probably atleast 10 formats inbetween.
I have a freeware program which actually recovered some very old photos aswell as the most recent ones, but not much inbetween. is there anything out there that is meticulously thorough...i assume there must be the technology for this. or is it just chance?
thanks a lot!

Hi I'm sebastian
My sister formated her sand disk card in her Casio Exilim by mistake.Now she is heart broken because all her 500 picture of Rome are gone. Please send me a solution to recover those pictures for her.

For anyone who has lost precious photos and who is not comfortable attempting recovery software, ReMemory offers a quick recovery service on no cure no pay basis. We can most often recover photos from cards that have been damaged ("card error"), accidently deleted or formatted. We return your card (worldwide shipping) together with your recovered photos on a CD or DVD. Feel free to take a look at our website, www.rememory.nl

Hi.!
Well my story is my cousin took pictures of me and my loved ones at my highschool graduation with her digital camera. She was taking awhile to develop them and so I volunteered to do it. So, i did and never gave it back since i hardly see her. Recently my sister got a digital camera and i used my cousins memory card to take pictures. i was messin around with it and it said format memory card not knowing what that meant i erased all her pictures. im so afraid to tell her when i get contact with her bc it had pictures of her children in it and it had my highschool grad pictures which i lost the copys of. reading the others comments gives me hopes in theres some way to recover her pictures and my grad pictures. please tell me theres hope!!!!
thank you.

Hi.!
Well my story is my cousin took pictures of me and my loved ones at my highschool graduation with her digital camera. She was taking awhile to develop them and so I volunteered to do it. So, i did and never gave it back since i hardly see her. Recently my sister got a digital camera and i used my cousins memory card to take pictures. i was messin around with it and it said format memory card not knowing what that meant i erased all her pictures. im so afraid to tell her when i get contact with her bc it had pictures of her children in it and it had my highschool grad pictures which i lost the copys of. reading the others comments gives me hopes in theres some way to recover her pictures and my grad pictures. please tell me theres hope!!!!
thank you.

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

Please Please Please can someone help me! I formatted my camera when out on saturday and im gutted, iv lost my weekend photos and want them back....is this possible? i have had a look on the internet and it says it is, but is it worth paying the money and does it really work? iv done a demo but nothing seems to happen...please help by email - nicole0610@hotmail.co.uk
THANKS

I went to Wrestlemania 23 plugged my card into a usb hub to my laptop (I couldnot find the cord for my camera to laptop) got a weird memory error and lost all of the Wrestlemania 23 pictures!!!!!

I have been able to get older pictures back, but not the recent ones.
Any advice is appreciated!! Pretty pretty please tell me there is a way i can get them back? I am willing to pay any amount at this point. My baby brother went with me and I really really want the pictures for him moreso than myself.

I went to Wrestlemania 23 plugged my card into a usb hub to my laptop (I couldnot find the cord for my camera to laptop) got a weird memory error and lost all of the Wrestlemania 23 pictures!!!!!

I have been able to get older pictures back, but not the recent ones.
Any advice is appreciated!! Pretty pretty please tell me there is a way i can get them back? I am willing to pay any amount at this point. My baby brother went with me and I really really want the pictures for him moreso than myself.

I formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

I lost my pictures in my Casio Exilim digital by an formatting accident,after that I took 2 pictures and deleted them twice, so if I use the Photo Rescue card does it still possible recover my pictures? also I still have some pictures in my "favorite photo", is there any ways I can down load those files to the computer? Thanks a lot for your help, I really appreciate that

PLEASE HELP ME!!! We just returned from our family vacation and I accidently deleted EVERY picture on my digital camera!! There were 192 pictures to be exact. I did the SAME THING that "Bang" did in a previous comment. I formatted the storage card and then took another picture in panic! Is there any possible way to retrieve these pictures??? PLEASE HELP!!!

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

formated my memory card by an accident,I lost more than 450 pictures, so if I use the Photo Rescue card, is it possible to recover all of them, also I still have about 200 pictures in my "favorite photo".Does it help? my digital is Casio Exilim.
Thanks a lot for your respond

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, HOWEVER I DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTER PUTTING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. HOWEVER I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, HOWEVER I DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTER PUTTING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. HOWEVER I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

I TOOK SOME FAMILY PICTURES RECENTLY, AND DELETED THEM FROM THE SD CARD AFTERUPLOADING THEM IN MY COMPUTER. H I FOUND OUT LATER THAT THEY ARE NO LONGER ON MY COMPUTER OR THE SD CARD . I WANT TO KNOW IF THERE IS A WAY FOR ME TO RECOVER THE PICTURES FROM THE SD CARD.

Hi i just recently put my San Disk camera card into my camera and it says that i need to formatt the thing, but i know that there are a ton of picture on the camera card, i dont want to formatt the card cuz i will lose all the pics is there anyway that i can save my pictures that are on the card??

dear sir
this is me kebal from south asia .i just five days buy a 64 MB SD memory card . and take pictures as like half but the problem that when i plug with the help of memory card reader on the compture ,its reconized frist and i was trying to copy all pics .then its accidently lost all and i remove and again try to insert it on mobile but its shoe all the pics and data but its not copied on the compture .can i got any eapical idea for copy this pictiurs again ???
thanks

Following formatting my memory card on holiday (and seemingly to lose all the photos and video clips) I then went on to take another whole card full of photos and video clips. Does that mean that it is now impossible to recover the previously formatted photos and video clips? If that is so then I won’t spend the money on a fix -but if there is any hope then I will. My memory card is a ScanDisc 1.0GB

k i got a camera for x-mas.. and it got broken.. so my dad boutgh me a new one for a suprize and i didnt really no how to work it.. and it was the night of prom so i took like 110 pics.. and i got home and was messing around with it and i didnt know what formatting did and i went into it and all my pics got deleated... PLEASE if theres anything u can do!!! please please help me... !!
p.s. my memorycard is a SanDisk 2.0GB...

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I sent my camera memory card through the mail to my friend and when she got it the pictures got erased and when I got it back and put it in my camera it said that it needs to be formated but I didn't do it. Can the PhotoRescue program recover my photos?

I accidentally formatted my canon A 540 camera using low level format & all my pics taken during my trip to rome were gone. my husband took another 10 photos using the same card. Is it possible to recover the photos. they are very special to me, please help.

I accidentally formatted my canon A 540 camera using low level format & all my pics taken during my trip to rome were gone. my husband took another 10 photos using the same card. Is it possible to recover the photos. they are very special to me, please help.

I get a message telling me my USB key needs to be formatted, I click ok, try to format and I get a message saying , disk is write protected, the problem is I've been using that key for over a year with no problem, can anyone help please

I get a message telling me my mamory card needs to be formatted, I click ok, try to format and I get a message saying , disk is write protected, the problem is I've been using that key for over a year with no problem, can anyone help please

Hello all I can help you with the lost photos. I have been able to retrieve all photos I lost on my 16GB SD card during my honeymoon. For the first 10 people I will do this for free. So please email me

Hello all I can help you with the lost photos. I have been able to retrieve all photos I lost on my 16GB SD card during my honeymoon. For the first 10 people I will do this for free. So please email me, you will need to send me your card to restore onto either the card or DVD

ok its christmas time and like us all we like to take tons of pics... & seeming its my sons second christmas of coarse i had to take a ton of pics..... from christmas eve up until boxing day evening the card has worked fine. ive been taking pictures and reviewing them... and then last night (boxing day night) i went to look at them and put them on my computer, all of a sudden its saying the memory card needs to be formatted. ive never seen this before.... and im sick thinking that ive lost ALL of my sons 2nd christmas photos...... can anyone help me recover these pics PLEEEEAAASSSE!!

If you have problems with your memory card in 80% of all cases the controller of your card is damaged and no software or card reader can help. You must separate the memory chip and dump the raw data to recover your data, look here: CF xD SD MMC memory card/stick photo recovery

I accidentally low formatted my SDHC memory card in my Canon SL1100 and lost all my pictures. Can I restore any of these pictures? Please tell me how? Does your memory restorer work with formatting mistakes like this?

I accidentally low formatted my SDHC memory card in my Canon SL1100 and lost all my pictures. Can I restore any of these pictures? Please tell me how? Does your memory restorer work with formatting mistakes like this?

I can see that you are an expert at your field! I am launching a website soon, and your information will be very useful for me.. Thanks for all your help and wishing you all the success in your business.

I formatted my Canon powershot SX12IS and lost all our vacation pics. I took it to the local photo shop and the used pc inspector software and and said they recovered no data. what can i do? I need to recover these photos or will be in a world of pain with my family.

There are many excellent freeware options for recovering photos. The problem is finding them. As this site doesn't allow links, just copy the following listing of freeware recovery software and paste it into Google to find them:
MiniTool, VAIOSoft, PC Inspector, Recuva, Pandora, SoftPerfect

I know this is very old, but this is complete nonsense. It's no more difficult to recover files after a format than it is after erase all. Please don't spread misinformation.
Formatting does not in any way securely erase the card. It simply re-initializes the file allocation table. The file data itself is left untouched.
There are lots of good reasons to reformat rather than erase all, not he least of which being the fact that it is much faster.
If you want to securely erase a card you need a special utility program which completely overwrites the card with random data.